Birth and Vision

Our Birth and Vision

When three poets of Kolkata, Anindita Bose, Sufia Khatoon and Amit Shankar Saha, met on 12 March 2015, there arose the vision of forming a Whatsapp group of poets who will share their poetic creation and get inspired by each other. With such a vision was formed “Rhythm Divine Poets”, the Whatsapp group and followed by “Rhythm Divine… a poet’s poetic journey”, the Facebook page. Sufia Khatoon, an avid social worker, painter and art curator, has involved poetry reading as part of her Art Fair even before the foundation of Rhythm Divine Poets group. So it was quite natural that after the foundation of the group such activities got an added impetus.

Rhythm Divine Poets group share their craft together over various fields both real and virtual. They have an intention to serve poetry as a form of art as well as to use poetry for philanthropic purposes. Rhythm Divine Poets group intends to use poetry as a therapy and in that direction they have visited old age homes to spread the effects of poetry. According to Anindita Bose, who is a faculty at Princeton Review, Rhythm Divine Poets group was started with the intention of sharing poetry on a daily basis, especially among poets and poetry lovers. Soon it grew and we had poets from USA, Germany, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and various other places joining in and sharing their work. Dr. Amit Shankar Saha, an a professor in the Department of English at Seacom Skills University, who likes to run things quietly in Rhythm Divine Poets group, is all excited about poetry doing so well. He says that anyone who is passionate about poetry will love to be here and just focus on writing poems and improve their skills by reading other poets’ works also.

Long before the advent of any poetry group in Kolkata (except some niche ones) there was Sufia’s Art Fair, where used to be poetic jamming sessions. This biannual event was the haunt of the then upcoming poets. Poets used to look forward to this event to recite their poems in front of an audience. It was also an amalgamation of art, craft, music and poetry. It was long before cafe poetry came into vogue. It was long before poetry became a thing for publicity. The Art Fair organized by Sufia Khatoon was where city poets met and recited their poems and soon it became the breeding ground for ideas that eventually led to the formation of poetry groups and the hosting of poetry events exclusively.

The Rhythm Divine Poets group founders have tirelessly nurtured poetic talents by encouraging poets, giving them a platform to display their creativity, organizing poetry workshops and online contests, taking poetry on air, incorporating journals and magazines within their fold as avenues for poetry publication, hosting events at both local and international levels and bringing poetry to the center of a poet’s life from the periphery of panel discussions. They have done so without any financial support or sponsorship and living life daily in defiance of their family, not conforming to social pressures and giving poetry a place of preeminence in their lives. They have tried to bring other poetry groups together so that there is bonhomie along with a healthy competition, which is a recipe for excellence, rather than creating a monopoly, which breeds mediocrity. They believe that poets are the guests at any poetry event and poets cannot be dictated by subsidiary associates. They believe that poets are humble people but not spineless people. They believe that poetry should unite and create harmony rather than divide and discriminate for some extraneous gains. They believe that there would not have been intolerance and extremism if there was poetry in the lives of the people.

It is not surprising that poetry came first when the beachcombers started speaking. The earliest speech made by human beings was poetry not prose for speech was a mnemonic device and rhyme and rhythm were the aids to memory. No doubt from Rig Veda to Gilgamesh to Iliad and Odyssey are all verses. All ancient religious texts adhere to poetry and it is its lack that gives birth to disharmony. That is why poets are not ordinary beings. They stoop to live ordinarily out of humility. Poetry teaches us to be courteous and humble and still stand one’s ground. Moreover poetry gives pleasure, the material pursuit of which has been the thrust of a capitalist society leading to decadence without realizing the better alternative that poetry provides.